House A or B?

[goldpendant]

Would you chose to buy house A, or stay in house B?

Both are Victorian, London suburbia.

House A:

Detached villa
2 double and 1 big single bedroom but could put a loft in and get 4th bedroom (double plus en suite).
Quiet/very pretty street
Smaller room sizes and lower ceilings than house B.
Longer garden than house B.
Needs all work doing, full refurb job.

House B:

Terraced townhouse (substantial/quite grand) - 6 split storeys in total.
Busy road, traffic noise.
4 large double bedrooms
Bigger floor plan than house A, with cellar conversion (or bed 5)
2 family bathrooms
We've done all the work here.

Both would ultimately (after work on house A) be 4 beds. House A would have a big open plan kitchen/diner onto garden whereas house B has a smaller kitchen but a big separate dining room.

Parking same for both (no driveway, street parking only).

We are me, DH and DC's (5/8). Family tend to stay a lot. Both in same school catchments for secondary.

House B is worth more as is, but house A needs approx £150K spending on it for full refurb and extensions. So it's sort of like for like. House A worth more when fully done up though and probably a better longer term investment.

WWYD?

[Gatr]

I would stay in house B however theres clearly something in your current house thats making you want to move?

[SleepingStandingUp]

6 storeys with 2 kids would drive me mad. How often are you top to bottom?

[goldpendant]

Absolutely @Gatr but I can't put my finger on it. It's possibly the busy road, although I'm more than used to it now.

[GazingAndGrazing]

No way could I have done 6 levels with kids, do you have in house help? What’s the reason for wanting to leave?

[goldpendant]

@SleepingStandingUp not too much now they are getting more independent, but hoovering stairs has become the bain of my life

[littlealexhorne]

Probably A for the quieter area and for being detatched, though I don't know I'd be willing to do the work on it

[SleepingStandingUp]

Do you think it's cos you've finished B and now you want a new challenge?
How sensible is a complete refurb with the kids or works you live in B until A was up to scratch?

[goldpendant]

@GazingAndGrazing cleaner once a week

It's split levels, like the pic below.... still six of them however!

[NavyBerry]

Cannot imagine life in 6 storeys...

[goldpendant]

I do like a project yes, this could be no.3....

I have also moved every few years of my life to date. I always dreamed of a forever home, I thought this was it, I genuinely love the bones of house B, but I can't seem to settle. There's a strong chance I might feel this way if we did house A.

House A is undoubtedly more desirable, perhaps it's aspiration getting the better of me.

[SleepingStandingUp]

Can you live in it with the kids whilst you do it up or would you need to live in Current house?

[goldpendant]

We need to sell B to purchase A so prob rent for 6 months....

[Persipan]

Personally I would infinitely prefer B over A, but I like having lots of space.

[Porridgeoat]

House A. The quietness and stillness and being detached and tucked away. Sounds restful and homely.

I would hate B. The spilt levels. The busy road, the endless cleaning, hearing neighbours

[goldpendant]

I think I am hankering for the same @Porridgeoat - stillness and quiet (it's a stone's throw from a beautiful park/lake too).

I genuinely thought I could live with the road here in favour of allll the space, but it is a lot to keep on top of.

Never happy.

[flowerpotsandrain]

House A, I couldn't do the stairs so would end up not using all the house and it'd be a constant hassle. I also don't like busy roads and love being able to go for a walk in a quiet pretty street.

[NastyBlouse]

House B is my kind of thing, personally. But then I'm particularly attached to townhouses and I love high ceilings.

Street parking only for a detached house would 100% put me off A (also entirely personally).

Weirdly specific wondering: if you converted the loft in A, you'd presumably have three full-size sets of stairs. Is your current house split-level? So (again, presumably) half-staircases. Would you actually be reducing total number of stairs if you did this?

[bilbodog]

House A

[MJMG2015]

You had me at 'detached' (As long as it's properly detached, not just a cigarette paper between you)

But I'd FAR prefer the big kitchen/diner leading out to the garden over a big sitting room


How does DH feel about doing the renovation? I'd only want to do it if he was as keen as me. I couldn't be done with dragging someone along.

And do you have the money (with a contingency fund) to do it how you want to do it?). Because it's not much fun being held up by lack of funds - especially when you have 2 small kids. It's kind of a waste of their young lives if this takes over...

Plus do you have the funds to rent & pay a mortgage for 6 months?

[perfumeistooexpensive]

My DSis has the London townhouse with six sets of stairs. Her DH has lost the use of his legs and it's a nightmare. Detached villa for me. Only proviso, is it in a conservation area? My Victorian house had four bedrooms. New owners have knocked through to bed 4 to make the bathroom bigger. They wanted to go into the loft. Planning permission was denied because of the need for window in the roof. You may need to speak to planning before you buy.

[sunshinesupermum]

A - even with needing the work doing and you'd be adding investment as well as having it as you want. In any case six storeys is an absolute no-no in my book.

[Nyclair]

House A

[goldpendant]

Thanks everyone, interesting so many would opt for A. I think I'm leaning that way too.

[powkin]

A. Quiet road and detached all the way.

[morefun]

I like the sound of B more! And get someone in to hoover if you can afford it